True Prayer Defined

Session 2

Prayer is heart to heart _______________________ with Christ as _____________________ and with __________________.

"Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me." Rev. 3:20.

"I doubt that I know of a passage in the whole Bible that throws greater light upon prayer than this one does. It is, it seems to me, the key which opens the door into the holy and blessed realm of prayer." (O. Hallesby, Prayer, 11)
"To pray is nothing more involved than to let ___________________ into our needs. To pray is to give Jesus _____________________ to employ His powers in the alleviation of our ____________________. To pray is to let Jesus glorify His name in the midst of our _____________________." (Hallesby, 12)

Read Matthew 18:1-4 and see what happened when the disciples let Jesus into their need. How was this different from the prayers we usually pray about loved ones who need to change?

Christ is the only _______________________ of a religious faith who has risen from the dead and is able __________________________________________________ of His followers. He is able to listen to our ____________________, __________________to us and _____________________ us.

III. Focusing Our Prayers

Christ seeks permission to enter our private world because people usually give Him only ____________________ access to their inner life.

In _____________________ prayer we invite Christ into our _____________________ life.

When we pray together we invite Christ into our ________________________

Letís aim to make Christ completely at __________________ in all our ________________________ as believers.

When Christ is completely at home in our ____________________ and our _____________________, He creates a new_____________________ of ________________________

Christ is our _______________________

Our prayers can give Him the _______________________ in our marriage, our prayer groups and our church.

Personal check up. Are your prayers welcoming Christ into your marriage, your family, your circle of Christian friends and your church? Are you experiencing Christ actively in charge of each of these relationships?